Tucumcari travels to Dester Friday

October 6, 2004

William Thompson

The Tucumcari High School football team hopes to spoil the Dexter Demons’ homecoming Friday night. Dexter, at 2-4 on the season, may seem a welcome relief to the Rattlers after losing their past two games.

Still, Dexter cannot be overlooked “We’ve got a very athletic quarterback with a great arm,” said Dexter Coach Tim Fuller. “He threw for 200 yards in the game before last, and we have excellent running backs.” Rattler Coach Dub Smith said his team has already put last week’s lopsided loss at Texico in the rear view mirror. “We were only in school two and a half days last week, and I think that may have hurt our continuity in the way we prepared for Texico,” said Smith “but I’m not using that as an excuse. We watched film of the Texico game Monday afternoon, and after that we told the players that we weren’t going to talk about Texico any more and we won’t.”

Smith said he will be working on correcting a football fundamental this week. “We haven’t been as crisp in tackling as we normally are,” said Smith. “We’re looking forward to Dexter. We will be duplicating their offense and defense in practice, and we will be ready I can guarantee you.”

Dexter’s Coach Fuller said he is putting his team through a little extra conditioning this week. “After that disappointing loss to Santa Rosa last week our guys have been running a lot this week,” said Fuller. “We will be better than last week.”
Coach Smith said the Dexter game is important for late-season momentum. “We need a win against Dexter for momentum as we go into district play against Clayton and Santa Rosa,” said Smith. “The Dexter game will be an exciting ballgame. Our kids will bounce back. They love football.” Fuller echoed other Class 2A coaches in naming Tucumcari’s strengths. “They are a really big team and they have great team speed,” said Fuller. “We are going to try to be ready, but they are a great team.” Tucumcari is 4-2 on the season.